A Hakka called Chang Kuo-tao

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

   A Hakka called Chang Kuo-tao (Zhang Guo-tao in pinyin)

   Chang Kuo-tao was born in 1897 into a Hakka family in a samll town 
called Shang Li Shi about 25 kilometers north of Ping Xiang city in Jianxi 
province. He completed his primary and high school schoolings in Ping
Xiang city. In 1916 he enrolled as a student studying science at Peking
Universty and he participated in the 4th May Movement in 1919. He and Li
Ta-chao, a professor at the university, and a few students formed the
Marxist Study Movement in the university. Many radical students, who
wanted to creat a new China flocked to this Movement. At that time Mao
Tse-tung was working as an assistant librarian at the university's
library. He was not even a student in the university.

   The Chinese Communist Party was born in 1920 and its first congress
was held in a boat in South Lake Chekiang province, about an hour by
train west from Shanghai. There were 13 delegates representing a total of
only 59 Communists through out China at that time. Chang Kuo-tao was
elected as the chairman and Mao Tse-tung a recording secretary of the
meeting.     

  In December 1921 Chang represented the Chinese Communists to the 
Far-East Labour Movement in Moscow in Russia and he met Lenin there.
He was the only Chinese Communist who had met Lenin, the founder of
Russian Communist Government, alive.  
 
  Chang took part in the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927 in the
province of Jiangxi. After the failure of the Uprising Chang fled to Hong
Kong where he hid there for nine months until at the end of May 1928 then 
he secretly travelled by boat to Russian through Manchuria. He stayed in
Russia for about two and a half years. During this period he studied at
the University of Sun Yat-sen in Moscow.

  He returned to China in the early of 1931 and two months later Chang was
delegated with authority by the party to lead the guerrilla base in the
region between the provinces of Hubei, Henan and Anhui. A year later this
base was being pushed by the Nationalist Government to the northern part
of Sichuan province. 
  
   On 16 October 1934 the Long March began. The Long Marchers trekked
through 11 provinces and walked for 6000 miles before they arrived in
Shaanxi in the North. 

In June 1935 Chang and his Fourth Army met the First Army led by Mao
Tse-tung at a town called Mao Kung in Sichuan province. The two armies
held many conferences there. Mao Tse-tung and his First Amry continued to
march north and eventually ended up in Shaanxi province in October 1935.
Whereas the Fourth Army led by Chang marched westward to Sikang the region
between the provinces of Tibet and Sichuan. Chang established a guerrilla
base there. However, in July 1936, Chang and his Fourth Army marched 
northwards to Shaanxi province and arrived there in September.   

   The Communist established a Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region
Government in Yan An and Chang was the chairman. 

  On 4th April 1938, Chang represented the Regional Government and went 
to Huang Ling city, which was half way between Yan An and Xi An city, to
Huang Di's (Yellow Emperor's) graveyard to pay respect to the founder of
the Chinese race. There were representatives from the Nationalist
Government and a few Overseas Chinese at the ceremony. After the ceremony
Chang defected to the Nationalists.

  After liberation Chang became an exile in Hong Kong where he
wrote his autobiography called "Wo Di Hui Yi My Memoirs".
Later Chang emigrated to Canada and died there at an old age. 
 
It is a pity that Chang has been forgotten by the Communists and the
Nationalists as he had contributed so much in politics during the 1920s
and 30s.

  CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.